Globeville advocate David Oletski, right, talks with a crew from Alexco Resource Corp. by the southwest entrance of the Asarco site in Denver. Cleanup of the old smelting site is wrapping up, and the development of Globeville Commerce Center could start early next year. From left are Collin Pierce, David Taylor and Michael Snider.

DENVER, CO - JULY 02: Cleanup is ending this year on the old Asarco smelting site in Globeville, and redevelopment of the site into the Globeville Commerce Center could start early next year. Denver, Colorado. July 02. 2014.

Split by two major freeways, several railroads and decades of bad breaks, Denver’s Globeville neighborhood finally is poised to see the rejuvenation of one of its sorest sites.

Cleanup of the long-contaminated former Asarco smelting plant, which stretches across 77 acres from Globeville into Adams County, is nearly finished. And a brownfield development company says builders could break newly cleaned ground next year on a site that an Adams County official envisions as a hub for advanced manufacturing, sprouting hundreds of new jobs.

This month, the plans for the Globeville Commerce Center could get a boost from the Denver City Council and Adams County commissioners. They are considering similar proposals for new metropolitan districts to help pay for road building and other infrastructure that would prepare the site for industrial development.

A couple of blocks south of the site, which is west of Washington Street between 51st and 54th avenues, David Oletski brims with optimism.

“We’re going to work hard to see if we can bring in some quality companies,” said Oletski, a neighborhood advocate who was born in Globeville. He’s lived there for all but 10 of his 59 years.

Combined with other movement that’s afoot in Globeville — which surrounds the Mousetrap interchange of I-70 and I-25 — Oletski says the potential is rich: “This is a cool old neighborhood, and I really think it could turn around.”

Minutes from downtown, it’s surrounded by efforts that could improve its fortunes in the next decade: transit stops along new lines, the reconstruction of I-70 and budding plans to redevelop the National Western Stock Show complex.

But the Asarco property holds a special place for Oletski. His grandfather, an immigrant from Yugoslavia, worked there from 1915 to 1950.

The Asarco Globe Smelter, which gave the area its name, was active for more than 150 years.

“Nowadays, if people see a smokestack,” Oletski said, “they say that’s pollution. But 100 years ago, when people saw a smokestack, they said, ‘That’s jobs.’ “

But the pollution left its mark.

Declared an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site in 1993, the property, along with some surrounding land, had high levels of cadmium, lead, arsenic and zinc in the groundwater and soil.

The bankruptcy settlement left a trust fund with $16 million earmarked for the site, but that has fallen short of cleanup costs that a few years ago were estimated at $22 million. Relying on creative financing and federal loans, Denver and Adams County have helped close the gap.

“There’s a definite need to have light industrial (space) out there,” said Denver City Councilwoman Judy Montero, to make up for a shortage of industrial real estate that has resulted from the legal marijuana industry’s growth. “It’s a positive signal for Adams County and Denver to be working together on this catalytic project.”

In the last few years, EnviroFinance Group, through its Globe-ville I subsidiary, has overseen the remediation work, which is expected to wrap up soon.

About 80 percent of the site is in Adams County, with the rest in Denver.

That division has led to collaboration by the two sides. The latest example is the pending creation of two metropolitan districts by officials from each. They would function together as a single district that could issue bonds to pay for site improvements, with the property owners repaying that cost through a special property tax levied only on them.

Cameron Bertron, EnviroFinance’s senior vice president of development services, said potential employers are interested in the site. The plan is for a business park that could include warehouse distributors, modern manufacturers or logistics companies, he said.

“We’re creating these metropolitan districts now, and we’re processing infrastructure plans now so that we’ll have those approvals by the end of this year, at the same time as the remediation wraps up,” Bertron said.

His company’s subsidiary is under contract to purchase the property from the Asarco trust. Service plans for the new districts are up for votes following public hearings July 14 at the Denver City Council and July 22 at the Adams County Board of Commissioners, with formal approval needed after that from the new property owner.

Jon Murray is The Denver Post's city hall reporter. His coverage focuses on Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, the workings of the City Council and city's government interactions with Denver's people, from neighborhood issues to regulation of the marijuana industry. A Colorado native, he joined The Denver Post in 2014 after reporting on city government and the legal system for The Indianapolis Star.

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